(Photo by Eric Salard used under CC by 2.0 license.)

Even more important update, March 28, 2019: WOW Air has ceased all operations.

Looks like the last word of my title was wrong … WOW Air just shut down.

Icelandair is offering $100 tickets if you have a WOW Air ticket.

EasyJet, Norwegian, Wizz Air, and XL Airways are also helping WOW Air passengers. See all of the details here.

IMPORTANT WOW Air update, March 26, 2019:

In my post below, I predicted that WOW Air would survive for two reasons: One, that Indigo Partners would invest in them, as they have with many other discount airlines; and two, that low oil prices would keep WOW profitable.

Unfortunately, reason #1 has just vaporized. Indigo Partners just walked away from a deal with WOW. This is a big deal, since in my mind it means WOW Air’s financial troubles are much worse than I expected. (Oil prices are also rising, though they are still lower than they were through much of last year.)

Now it seems the only option is for the Icelandic government to bail WOW out. Will they? I can only guess, and I’ll guess yes. But note that I’m clearly not very good at making predictions about this!

Below I say that “But if it were my trip, I wouldn’t book with WOW until the deal with Indigo is complete.” That deal is not happening, and I’d still stick with this advice: Avoid booking with WOW until some sort of bailout is finalized.

UPDATE January 2019: Wow Air has cut its number of cities to just 4 in the United States: “By summer, WOW’s only gateways in the United States will be Baltimore/Washington (BWI), Boston, Detroit and New Jersey’s Newark Liberty airport.”

This is a “back to basics” move for WOW– BWI and Boston were their two original US airports.

This is bad news if you wanted to travel from their other US destinations, but I think it’s good news for the survival of the airline: A severe cut in destinations like this should help them stay in business.

This isn’t my typical type of post, and I debated whether to write this article or not. But when I thought about it, I realized that I would think twice about booking a flight with WOW Air right now, and so I’m sharing what I have learned with you. Please note that all of this is speculation based on a handful of recent articles. And that I think it is likely that WOW Air will survive.

WOW Air background

It’s shocking that there’s even a possibility that WOW Air won’t be around for much longer. WOW Air has been rapidly expanding the number of US cities they fly from. In early 2016, they only flew from BWI (Baltimore Washington) and Boston. Now, they fly from 14 cities in the US. (See our WOW Air vs. IcelandAir post for more details.)

WOW Air financial woes

But then in August 2018 this article as published in The Grapevine, and English language Icelandic newspaper:

The Woes of WOW: Financial Losses Follow Impressive Growth.

A couple of excerpts:

“There have been warning signs and speculation about WOW for much of the past year. In November 2017 the airline sold two of its aircrafts and then leased them back.”

“The company hopes to find investors by the end of August and may need an injection of funding soon to stay operational.”

About a month ago, IcelandAir offered to buy WOW Air. Then last week the headlines broke that IcelandAir’s planned takeover of WOW Air had been cancelled. Also from The Grapevine:

Icelandair Group’s acquisition of WOW air cancelled.

The headline doesn’t seem worrisome at all; nor does the article.

“In an email from CEO of WOW air Skúli Mogensen to his staff this morning he says that his aim is to keep running WOW air as an independent airline and hopes to be able to bring good news to his staff soon.”

But this take is very different:

WOW Air — and Those $99 Flights to Iceland — Could Soon Disappear

“WOW Air — the Icelandic airline famous for $99 transatlantic flights — could be in danger of folding.”

A reprieve for WOW Air

This past Thursday (November 29th), news broke that and investment firm might offer WOW Air a lifeline:

WOW Air: Struggling budget airline gets a lifeline from parent of Frontier Airlines

So what do you do? If you already have a WOW Air ticket, consider buying travel insurance. Read the fine print to make sure airline bankruptcy is covered.

And if you haven’t booked your ticket yet, I’d stick with IcelandAir for now. I feel bad saying this, since enough people switching away from Wow could hasten their demise. But if it were my trip, I wouldn’t book with WOW until the deal with Indigo is complete.

No one seems to know why the deal with IcelandAir fell through. If there’s a major issue with WOW Air’s financials that scared IcelandAir away, that same issue could cause this deal to collapse as well.

WOW Air will probably survive

If I had to guess, I’d say it’s likely that WOW Air will survive. It is true that several small European airlines have gone out of business this year:

Passengers Are Stranded as Another European Airline Collapses

The article above was published on October 2nd of this year; in the 2 short months since then, the price of oil has fallen by nearly a third. That should be enough to keep WOW Air afloat.

Still, were it my money, I’d spend it with IcelandAir until the new deal is finalized.